A once-in-twelve-years release surely counts as a collectible. That’s the case for designs released for, and themed around, each Lunar New Year. The 12 animals of the Chinese zodiac have become mainstay springtime inspirations across brands of all stripes. Fashion and accessories, skincare and makeup, and even whisky. Watches, as you might imagine, are no exception.
2026’s Year of the Horse brings with it a kinetic energy associated with the vigour and speed of the animal. It’s fortuitous timing—the monumental, generational changing of the guard in fashion hits boutiques this season, and there is a sense of a page being turned, a new chapter started.
In the world of watches, the horse is being interpreted and imagined in various ways. At Harry Winston, for instance, the jeweller’s eye for fantasy comes through in a vibrant red lacquered fire horse, complete with orange and yellow lacquer mane and tail. Winston’s horse is posed triumphantly above billowing mother-of-pearl clouds—an exuberant vision of supernatural wonder.
More traditional watchmakers, meanwhile, are leaning into subtle details so that these watches—tied as they are to an occasion and a theme—are no less easy to incorporate into a collection and wear on the daily. TAG Heuer, for example, has kept its depiction of a horse to an embossing on the sapphire crystal caseback of its special edition Carrera Chronograph. IWC Schaffhausen, too, has left its overt expression of a horse—a specially shaped winding rotor—to the back of the watch. No less fancy, but easier to wear after the red and gold decorations of the season have come down.
Or, you might embrace the simple joy of the festive season with something like Swatch’s collaboration with the artist Yu Wenjie. The entirety of the watch, from dial to case to strap, is treated like a scroll painting. Its design of two spirited steeds gallops past the traditional boundaries of a watch, with an apt sense of the irrepressible momentum and energy of the horse.
Here, a selection of horse watches galloping in for the 2026 Chinese New Year.
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Dior's Grand Soir Year of the Horse
At the house of Dior, fantasy gardens and enchanted forests are recurring themes. To mark the year of the horse, the maison created a toile de jouy scene in miniature with a pair of sculpted pink gold horses traipsing among mother-of-pearl bushes, a printed floral forest, and flowers set with amethysts, spessartites, and sapphires.
Dior Grand Soir Year of the Horse in steel and rose gold with diamonds, mother-of-pearl, amethysts, spessartites, and blue and yellow sapphires, $58,000, limited to 30
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Harry Winston's Chinese New Year Automatic 36mm
Harry Winston’s vision of the year of the horse is a celestial one. A fire horse, to be precise, that exists in the imagination and that gallops in the sky. The jeweller has used a combination of fine techniques to create this timepiece, housed in the Harry Winston Moments case.
The horse is lacquered in red, with cambered surfaces to create the volumes of its muscular form. The clouds it rides are crafted from mother-of-pearl marquetry, in which fine slivers of the material are fitted between thin borders; and the golden mother-of-pearl sky backdrop is dotted with gold cabochons and stars. Around this scene, a horseshoe-shaped arch of red mother-of-pearl is dotted with a gradient of marquise diamond hour markers, finished at six o’clock with the house’s favoured emerald-cut diamond.
Harry Winston Chinese New Year Automatic 36mm in rose gold with round-, marquise- and emerald-cut diamonds, and white, red and golden mother-of-pearl, price on request, limited to 8
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IWC Schaffhausen's Portugieser Automatic 42 Year of the Horse
The Schaffhausen watchmaker IWC has a tradition of marking the Chinese Lunar New Year with a special timepiece from across its various collections. This year, its signature Portugieser gets the spotlight with a burgundy makeover—at this time, also the only Portugieser offered in this colour. IWC has kept its marks of the horse subtle: the highlight is hidden on the caseback in the form of a gold-plated winding rotor crafted in the shape of a horse. Look a little closer at the dial, though, and you might notice one more thoughtful touch. On the seven-day power reserve indicator subdial, what would typically say ‘DAYS’ has been replaced with a golden horse. How’s that for a little horsepower?
IWC Schaffhausen Portugieser Automatic 42 Year of the Horse in stainless steel, $20,800, limited to 500
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Jaeger-LeCoultre's Reverso Tribute Enamel 'Horse'
The blank side of a Reverso’s case is, as Jaeger-LeCoultre has richly demonstrated, a perfect canvas for creative expression. This year, it is continuing its series of black and gold engraved designs to mark the Zodiac. The design combines various handcraft skills from its Métiers Rares workshops: hand-engraving that takes around 80 hours to create the horse figure, and meticulous grand feu enamel to achieve the deep, inky black on both the case back and the dial.
Jaeger-LeCoultre Reverso Tribute Enamel ‘Horse’ in yellow gold with grand feu enamel, price on request, limited to 10
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Swatch's Riding the Clouds
Artist Yu Wenjie’s illustration of a pair of winged horses decorates this vibrant Swatch model. A former artist-in-residence at the brand’s Swatch Art Peace Hotel in Shanghai, Yu’s design features black and white steeds with fiery manes against drifting clouds—a look that wraps the entirety of the watch from case to strap.
Swatch Year of the Horse Riding the Clouds, $137
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TAG Heuer's Carrera Chronograph Year of the Horse
TAG Heuer’s limited edition Carrera Chronograph offers a subtle, thoughtful take on the Zodiac theme. Dial-side, it’s been designed with a palette of crimson and champagne-tone gold to mark the year of the fire horse. The date window at 9 o’clock also features a neat detail: the 7 numeral is replaced with the Chinese character for horse, a nod to the animal’s seventh position in the Zodiac cycle.
TAG Heuer Carrera Chronograph Year of the Horse in stainless steel, $11,150, limited to 250
